Real Salt Lake: Davies happy to be back in U.S.

Like most teenagers, when Kyle Davies was presented with the opportunity to play soccer in Europe he knew it was something he couldn't pass up.

Two years later, and now a member of Real Salt Lake, the defender couldn't be happier to be home.

"I enjoyed my time in England and I think I grew a lot as a player, but I love America to be honest with you and really want to play back in America where I was born and grew up," said Davies, who's from Danville, Calif. "To have my parents and friends see me play, that means a lot to me."

Davies, 20, trained with his new team for the first time Wednesday afternoon, a training session he felt was very productive. He admitted being a little rusty and nervous in his first practice in a week since departing Southampton in England, but said he's anxious to fight for a spot on the field.

"Obviously I'd love to play, but I know whenever you go to a new team you've got to earn your place, so by training hard and working hard hopefully I'll be able to earn myself a spot," he said.

Davies' first impressions of the city and the club were fantastic. He loved the view of the mountains flying into Utah Tuesday afternoon, said Rio Tinto Stadium is "sweet" and added that "the boys" were all very cordial during his first day on the job.

RSL had a 5 percent chance in acquiring Davies in the weighted MLS lottery, and it was that slim chance that made going after him a no-brainer. The lottery is used by the league to disperse high- profile players when they sign a contract with MLS after playing overseas.

A team's chances in the lottery is based on the previous 365 days of competition, which is why RSL's chances were slim. When a team wins a particular lottery, they're ineligible to participate in future lotteries for the remainder of the season. That is the reason only nine clubs took part in the Davies lottery, which FC Dallas had the best shot of winning.

"Every team has a choice to opt in or out. Different teams have a different percentage chance of winning, and based on that they may evaluate that player versus all future potential players that come into the system," said RSL general manager Garth Lagerwey.

Several teams with higher odds opted not to participate in the Davies lottery in hopes of acquiring an even bigger name in a future lottery. With such a miniscule percentage, Lagerwey said it would've been foolish not to throw RSL's hat in the Davies lottery.

"How often do you land the captain of the Under-20 National Team for free. There's nothing not to like," said Lagerwey.

Even though Davies is just a week removed from playing for Southampton's reserve team the past couple of years, with players like Nat Borchers and Jamison Olave entrenched into the starting line-up in front of him, playing time is going to be tough to come by.

"He's a young player and he's a young center back, and it's hard to play at center back right away as a young player," said Lagerwey. "This is not a kid who's necessarily going to step in and change our team, but it's a nice talent to have."

It's especially nice when that talent just falls into your lap.

E-mail: jedward@desnews.com